Making a trek for maple through Hoover Woods

Maple leaf shaped signs explain the steps needed to make maple syrup during the Making Maple Magic on Saturday, March 10 at Hoover Forest Preserve. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Visitors took a guided hike through the woods at Hoover Forest Preserve in Yorkville March 10 for Making Maple Magic to learn all about the basics of making maple syrup. After the hike, they enjoyed a pancake breakfast.

Emily Dombrowski, Environmental Education program leader, welcomes a group of about 50 parents and children to the guided tour through a woods filled with maple trees (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Emily Dombrowski, Environmentsl Education Program Leader, explains that other trees, including this walnut, can also be used to make sweet syrup. The Kendall County Forest Preserve hosted Making Maple Magic on Saturday, March 10, 2018, in Yorkville, Illinois. (Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Forty empty gallon jugs are strung along a path to represent how many gallons it takes to make one gallon of maple syrup at the Hoover Forest Preserve in Yorkville. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Emily Dombrowski, Environmental Education program leader, says that 40 gallons of sap is used to make one gallon of sweet syrup. The Kendall County Forest Preserve hosted Making Maple Magic on Saturday, March 10, 2018, in Yorkville, Illinois. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media) .

Zsa Zsa Svitek-Hendrix and Laylanni Perez try their hand at drilling a hole in a fallen log, similar to how a maple tree gets tapped at Making Maple Magic. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Environmental Education Coordinator April Morris shows the group a sap bucket that is about half full of frozen sap. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Environmental Education Coordinator April Morris carries a sap bucket up from a sugar maple tree to show the group what sap looks like before it becomes syrup at Hoover Forest Preserve. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

During the Making Maple Magic Saturday, instructor Kimberly Adams shows a wafer of solid maple syrup that was highly prized by Native Americans because it took so long to make and was highly nutritious. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

Instructor Kimberly Adams holds a bark bucket similar to what Native Americans used before the Europeans brought over metal containers in Yorkville on March 10. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)

The payoff after a trek through the woods on a cold Saturday morning was having some pancakes and bacon with real maple syrup. (Photo by Jon Langham/for Chronicle Media)